Poor students do better in wealthier schools, test scores show
NORTH COUNTY ---- Wealthier school districts appear to do the best in educating low-income students, state data show.
The data, provided by the California Department of Education, show that poorer students in wealthier districts pass state standardized tests at up to double the rate of similar students in less affluent districts.
Educators said last week that that could be because wealthier districts can offer more individualized help and often have more resources.
In addition, those districts have high numbers of students with strong language skills and that can rub off on low-income students, who often start school a bit behind, said Sandy Gecewicz, chief academic officer for Vista Unified School District.
However, even in wealthier districts, a large achievement gap remains between poorer students and their classmates, the state records show. State and local school officials have said closing the gap is a priority.
"As educators, it's a moral imperative for us to be able to equip all students with the ability to compete and be anything they want in life," said Brenda Jones, assistant superintendent of the Escondido Union Elementary School District.
The numbers
In California, standardized tests are used to measure student achievement and rate the effectiveness of schools. Each spring, 6.3 million students in California in grades two through 11 take the tests that primarily focus on English and math skills.
Results are grouped by school and by district, but are also broken down by ethnic and socioeconomic groups to gauge how students in those categories are meeting the targets.
The state labels students economically disadvantaged if their families have certain income requirements set up by the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. To qualify for the program, a family of four can earn up to $38,200 a year.
In the wealthy Poway School District, only 10 percent of students taking standardized tests last year fell into the disadvantaged category. More than 50 percent of those students passed the English portion of the state exams.
Other wealthier districts with small numbers of economically disadvantaged students, such as Carlsbad Unified School District and San Dieguito Union High School District, had roughly 40 percent of those students passing the tests.
In districts such as Escondido and Vista ---- where the percentage of disadvantaged students is much higher ---- the rate at which such students passed the state tests was lower.
More than 60 percent of Escondido Union Elementary School District's test-takers are grouped as disadvantaged and about 27 percent of those children passed the state tests last year. There are 8,596 disadvantaged students in the district, and 2,336 passed the test.
In Vista Unified, where nearly half of the students are disadvantaged, roughly 28 percent of disadvantaged students passed the state tests, or 1,878 out of 6,645.
The gap
The gap between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds varies from district to district, according to the state numbers.
In North County, San Dieguito Union High School District has the biggest gap, the numbers show. In that district, 40 percent of the 534 students considered disadvantaged passed standardized English tests last year, compared with 85 percent of the 5,201 students not in that category.
Oceanside Unified School District had fewer students pass the test, but also had the smallest gap. In that district, 35 percent of the 6,850 "disadvantaged" students passed the test, compared with 61 percent of the 4,731 not in that group, according to the state numbers.
The smaller gap in Oceanside Unified is the result of years of concerted work focused on helping the lower performing students and encouraging all children to strive for college, Superintendent Larry Perondi said.
"It's an issue of high expectations," he said.
Suzanne O'Connell, assistant superintendent at Carlsbad Unified, said districts want to do more than close the achievement gap; they want to see all students improve.
"Closing the achievement gap really is suggesting that the top stay stationary," she said. "We're happy whether the gap goes away or not, if all of our students move forward."
Out of the shadows
There are signs of hope, school officials say.
All of the districts in North County have shown significant gains in test scores for poorer students over the last five years, especially the lower performing districts, according to state data.
"With enough support and time, you will begin to see the achievement gap close," Gecewicz said.
Part of the reason those students are doing better in recent years is because standardized tests have brought them out of the shadows, said O'Connell.
It wasn't until 2002 that the state and federal governments started requiring the district to compute test score data for different groups of children, including different races, language groups and income levels.
Several North County school districts have been sanctioned by federal officials because not enough students from certain groups within the districts are passing the state tests.
Districts that have been hit with sanctions include Vista Unified, Oceanside Unified, Escondido Union Elementary and Fallbrook Union High school districts.
The key to helping these students do better in school is to identify who they are and where they're struggling, said Mel Robertson, assistant superintendent at Poway Unified School District.
"We're really in tune to where and when they need the interventions," she said of educators in her district. "We try to get down to the individual student."
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.